December 13, 2013

5 Ways to Test How Sharp Your Knife Is

Making a knife sharp is the goal, but how do we know the knife is actually sharp? Is the edge at the level of sharpness that we were trying to achieve?

Obviously a sharp knife should be able to cut a variety of things. Often the best test of how sharp a knife is to use the knife and see how it performs. If you’re a little nutty like me and just like to sharpen for the sake of getting a knife as absolutely sharp as possible then there are a couple simple tests that I use to test my knife’s sharpness. I don’t use any ‘crazy’ 21st century technology and most of the items I use to test how keen an edge is, are probably lying around your house. Here are some of the methods that I use:

1. Slicing paper- This is a trick I feel most people already know. If you can slice paper effortlessly with your knife and it doesn’t catch and tear then your knife is reasonably sharp and ready to work. Now, there are levels of sharpness much greater than being able to slice plain old printer paper, but a knife that can do this trick is sharp. This trick can also be used to see if there are any hidden dull/damaged sections of your edge.

2. Slicing Magazine and Phone Book paper- I know, I know…It’s the same trick as before But because of how thin and glossy these types of paper are, the more difficult it is to catch with an edge. A knife that can slice effortlessly through phone book or magazine paper, especially if it is rolled up, is very sharp. Maybe even sharp enough to shave with.

3. Shaving Sharp- If you can shave arm hair with your knife you probably don’t need to read this blog post.

4. Finger Nail Trick- Stick out your index finger and (Seriously, be carefully) gently lay the edge of your knife on your fingernail so the knife is perpendicular to your finger. If your knife bits into your fingernail with ABSOLUTELY NO PRESSURE, and doesn’t slide around, then your knife is reasonably sharp.

5. Slice an Onion- The skin on an onion is very thin and slippery. If your knife can easy catch and bit into the skin of an onion you’re in good shape.

And that’s all I have folks! Please let us know if you have any neat tricks and tips to tell how sharp your knife is please let us know in the comments below. Happy Sharpening!!